skill-authoringlisted

# Skill Authoring Create, revise, or review skills so always-needed instructions stay in `SKILL.md`, detail loads only at its action point, and a competent mid-tier agent can follow the result without hidden context or expert inference. ## Budgets - Frontmatter `description`: target 1–3 short content lines; hard maximum 280 folded characters. - Judge complexity by words, not lines. A line cap is gameable — the same obligations reflowed into denser text still pass it — so tight line caps end up rewarding the unreadable density they were meant to prevent. Reformatting for clarity must always be free. - `SKILL.md`: hard maximum 200 lines; word budget 1,800, target 600–1,500. - References: hard maximum 200 lines; word budget 1,800, target 300–1,200. - Only the line cap fails the audit. Word budgets and targets warn, and are author guidance. - Keep lines at or below 120 characters where practical; never pack prose to satisfy a line budget. - Spend the word budget on obligations, not phrasing. When a prompt nears its ceiling, remove or extract obligations; never compress prose to fit. - Exceed a target only when concrete safety or workflow value justifies it; never exceed a hard maximum. ## Canonical Shape Use this shape unless the user explicitly requires another format: ```md --- name: <skill-name> description: <capability>. Use when <triggers>. Do not use when <near misses>. --- # <Skill Name> <mission and success condition> ## Always - <non-negotiable invariant> ##